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When I get complaints about large companies, I send them to my corporate contacts to resolve. I deal with these people regularly and they get to know me.

A large appliance company contact recently alerted to something fishy. They had received an email, supposedly from me, but the email address looked suspicious. Was it a request I had sent through?

It was definitely not my email address, eroseman@thestar.ca. It was a Gmail address that had my name and a reference to the Toronto Star (tstar). And the writing style was not mine, either.

“I’m working on an article that prints next Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015, in Canada’s largest newspaper. I’m giving you an opportunity to provide a quote on the following case that was handled by your customer service department on Dec. 30,” the fake Ellen Roseman wrote.

The person had a dishwasher, just over two years old, that was giving him low water sensor messages. He reported the problem twice during the warranty period and had it fixed. A third repair was done out of warranty as a good will gesture.

But when the same thing happened a fourth time, he was given the phone number of a local appliance repair service.

“As three previous repairs have been unsuccessful, we are seeking a credit voucher for replacement of the dishwasher with a different model,” my impersonator said.” If this is not possible, we are asking that you repair the machine with a promise that any work be guaranteed for one year (not just 90 days).”

The so-called Ellen Roseman said she would proceed with a story to appear in the Star’s business section on Jan. 7 if she didn’t receive a response by Jan. 5.

Threats are a tactic I rarely use, especially with a date attached. Anyway, I was on holiday at the time, not writing any columns at all.

This was my first case of professional identity theft (using details cut and pasted from my website). I wanted to follow up with the perpetrator.

Luckily, the dishwasher owner’s name, address and phone number appeared in the email. It was easy to track him down.

The appliance company called him to discuss his complaint. He was informed that I had seen the email and I had denied writing it.

The Star’s business editor, Doug Cudmore, also called and emailed, asking him to stop pretending to be me. After a few days, he responded.

“The voicemail was sheepish. He apologized several times, profusely, promised never to do it again and said we could call him back if we wanted to speak to him,” Doug said.

Surprisingly, he had never approached me directly and asked me to advocate on his behalf. I would have tried to help. Instead, he’d tried another — unorthodox, if not illegal — route.

If you have a consumer complaint about a large brand-name company, feel free to contact me by email. Please stick to policy issues, not personal issues, and try to be concise. I will forward it to my corporate contacts.

My new course: I’ll be talking about how to value companies and pick the right stocks at University of Toronto continuing studies on Monday nights, 7 to 9 p.m., starting Jan. 12. The cost is $250. You can find a link to register on my home page.

Marie Engen, who writes the Boomer and Echo blog with her son Robb, talks about people who feel they can’t invest in stocks when the markets are hot. They ask, “Is it too late to buy?” and keep their savings in bank deposits at low interest rates.

There is a common fear of investing at the top of the market – resulting in your staring at big losses right off the bat.

Of course, there’s always the possibility of investing right before a market downturn. But no one knows for sure when this will occur.

An acquaintance remarked last year that the market was overheating and a correction was surely due shortly. This was when the S&P/TSX Composite Index was around 12,800. Today (as of this writing), it sits at 15,550. In the meantime, he has stayed on the sidelines waiting.

Rather than fretting about when you should make your move, think instead about how long you’re planning to keep the money in the market.

As the pundits say, time in the market is better than timing the market. You may live a long time, so why dump your stocks when you turn 60 or 65?

You can hold more conservative investments in your retirement years. But you should keep some money in the stock market to preserve your purchasing power.

My investing class starts tonight. Close to 90 people have enrolled, a record number.

When I asked why they signed up, I heard a variety of reasons:

— I want to understand the lingo.
— I want to learn about ETFs (exchange-traded funds).
— I want to be my own financial adviser.
— I want to prepare for the “soap opera” visits with my adviser.
— I want to find out how to reinvest company dividends.
— I want to pay for courses outside Canada in five years.

All these reasons make sense, except maybe the last. Five years is too short a period for your stock market investments to flourish, especially when you come in after a long bull market.

I am a fan of Mint’s personal finance website, which came to Canada a few years ago. So I happily agreed to an interview and a link on my blog roll.

Here’s an excerpt from the article, where I express views that won’t surprise my faithful readers.

What industries do you think are the biggest offenders when it comes to unfair practices toward consumers?

Telecom troubles usually top the list. Canadians have three big wireless providers, which charge high prices and bind customers to unfair contracts. Complaints about phone, Internet and TV service keep me busy every day.

Another big area is financial services – everything from banking to credit to investing. We have a few large banks in Canada which like to say they’re on the consumer’s side. But their practices are often designed to maximize profits and favour shareholders.

What are the most common consumer frustrations, concerns or questions your readers come to you with?

Consumers are frustrated by how much energy it takes to reach large companies. And when companies settle a dispute, they don’t always compensate clients for the time spent pursuing complaints. So I go to bat for my readers to get them extra concessions.

Contracts can be confusing when written in legalese and laid out in a font size too small to read. Many customers don’t check their contracts, but trust what they are told by salespeople. That leads to heartache when a company denies a claim as based on hearsay.

If you wonder about using Mint.com to track your finances, here are a few reviews:

Investor Junkie blog: Likes the site very much, but wishes there was more investing information. It’s a weakness.

PC Magazine: Best tool for managing personal finances. The fact that it’s free seals the deal.

When you buy a used car, you should order an independent inspection and a vehicle history. This can protect you from getting a vehicle with mechanical defects or hidden repairs that lower its resale value.

Sound obvious? Maybe so. But in my experience, many buyers simply take the dealer’s word on the car’s condition.

New cars don’t usually require an inspection or history. But you should do an online search of the make and model, adding the term “complaints” to bring up problems that others have experienced.

I’ll post some readers’ complaints below, along with responses from Viraf Baliwalla of the Automall Network, whose company helps buyers get the best deal when they shop for new and used cars.

Baliwalla says most car buying services are paid for by dealers and generate customer contacts for dealers. His service tries to be more like Consumer Reports magazine:

We conduct independent market price research to determine what the best prices are for all makes and models of vehicles. We sell the data to car buyers and lessees in the form of our Best Price Reports for $75.

Once you know what the best prices are in the market, it eliminates the need for comparison shopping. You can negotiate your best price quickly and painlessly.

For those who don’t want to do any negotiation, we offer our Full Concierge Service for $295. We will negotiate the price of the new car, your trade-in and those unnecessary extra fees, which we can usually get waived if not reduced.

Jim Davidson of Car$mart also runs a car buying service. I’m a customer and I like being able to save time and hassles negotiating with dealers.

Davidson says his fee of $500 (plus HST) is more than recovered in the wholesale pricing he can negotiate for clients:

We start with an initial consultation to determine your best options. Then we provide in-depth market research. Then, there’s our negotiations to secure the best price. And, finally, we deliver the new car right to your door.

We look after all of the details, providing you with a pleasant, hassle-free car buying experience.

So, do your research or hire others to do it for you. You can’t change your mind after signing a contract, a fact many buyers find out only after they are disappointed with a car purchase.

This will be my 10th year teaching at University of Toronto’s school of continuing studies. I usually get a large group taking the course (about 50 to 80 students).

The information is aimed at those who want to know more about how to invest in stocks, mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. Whether you invest on your own or work with a representative, you need to know the lingo and what questions to ask.

You get a manufacturer’s warranty when buying an electrical appliance, such as a toaster, and you can purchase an extended warranty from the retailer. All this for a product that costs as little as $30 to $50.

So, when you buy a newly-built house or condo that costs $150,000 to $1+ million, you assume you will receive as much protection as when you buy an appliance.

But there’s a group of dissatisfied homeowners who write to me almost daily, complaining about problems they have experienced with Tarion Warranty Corp.

Tarion was set up by the Ontario government in 1976 to administer a statutory warranty for homes built by registered builders.

Burned buyers want to see the Ontario government set up an independent value-for-money audit of Tarion’s operations. Here is what they say:

Tarion is too close to the builders it’s supposed to regulate and doesn’t have a clear consumer mandate.

When consumers try to appeal Tarion’s decisions at a tribunal, they often find Tarion sends its own lawyers to testify against them.

Tarion has a monopoly on home warranties. It reports to the Ontario consumer ministry, but it can’t be investigated by the Auditor General or the Ontario Ombudsman.

Last week, I did a Toronto Star column about being invited to a media breakfast at Tarion’s office to be told of a major repair (more than $5 million) done to 23 homes that had cracked foundations as a result of land settling and sinking.

Some Tarion dissidents wanted to comment on this story, but didn’t get a chance because the Star closed off comments quickly. They can do so here.

P.S. Here’s an update on my blog post about hiring a roofer. After getting four or five estimates, I hired a company that a reader recommended.

The work took several weeks because of rain delays and cost more than $10,000. They removed several layers of flat roof installed in the past, making my roof six inches lower than my neighbour’s on the other side.

It’s not an easy process to manage and it’s not finished yet. My neighbour found a spot the roofers had missed, which was visible from his back yard. They’re coming back tomorrow to finish the job.

Many people will never read a book about personal finances. The Wealthy Barber did well because it was about friends hanging out together, talking about things like baseball and cutting hair, as well as money.

For those who find books a slog, watching a video may appeal in a way the printed word does not. The whole world is on YouTube. Now I am too.

Since 2010, I’ve hosted the four-hour Financial Basics workshop at the Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University, reaching about 100 people at a time. (The next one is Tuesday, May 13, 5.30 p.m.)

Ryerson is committed to financial literacy. It insists on keeping these workshops free to the public. Anyone can attend. No solicitations allowed.

Former Chang School dean Gervan Fearon decided to produce videos to reach a wider audience. The FCAC agreed to subsidize the costs. I appear in the English version. Stephane Veron, a Ryerson professor, appears in the French version.

We knew there had to be something to lighten the mood. Money lessons can be tedious.

Since there was no budget to hire actors, the producers decided to tell stories using Twitter and text chats among friends.

Hope you like the results. There’s a two-minute preview at the top of the page, letting you know about the objectives for the video project.

Nevertheless, I’m looking for quotes from companies I find online. Not an easy job with a proliferation of firms.

First, I went to Homestars,which is well known for customer reviews of contractors. With hundreds of Toronto roofers listed, I looked for those with ratings of 9.5 to 10 (out of 10) and the owner’s name clearly visible.

Then, I ran across something called Smart Reno, which acts as a matchmaker for customers and contractors. I described the job and left my email address and phone number. Now I’m getting contractors calling me to see if they can inspect the roof and give quotes.

The final stop was the Better Business Bureau, which lists helps you screen out contractors to avoid (those with ratings of D or F). I checked out City Wide Roofing, which called me after I went to Smart Reno. They had an A+ rating.

Now I know why I waited so long to replace the roof. It’s an expensive job and requires an informed decision. Any advice is welcome. Wish me luck.

CBC Marketplace recently tested advice given by 10 banks and investment firms. Using hidden cameras, it showed what happened when a potential client walked into each firm and said she had a $50,000 inheritance to invest.

While some firms performed well, others gave advice that Marketplace’s expert Preet Banerjee described as atrocious. Here are highlights:

In some cases, information was incorrect or misleading — even in response to direct questions, such as how fees are calculated.

Some gave unrealistic promises about returns, including one adviser who said that a $50,000 investment should increase by $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 in one year.

Others failed to adequately assess the customer’s risk profile, which advisers are supposed to use to ascertain the suitability of investment products they recommend to a person.

I have my own story to tell about Maddy (not her real name), who works at the Toronto Star and told me of her dilemma.

Nine years ago, she met a friend of a friend who sold mutual funds. At the adviser’s urging, she took out a $50,000 line of credit to invest.

She was losing sleep because she hadn’t repaid any of the $50,000 — and she hadn’t gained much ground with the mutual funds purchased on her behalf.

Maddy didn’t understand the strategy, but did trust the adviser. She only started questioning things when her adviser quit the firm.

She decided to pay off the line of credit. But this wasn’t easy to do.

The adviser had invested the money in a dividend mutual fund. Each distribution was used to buy more mutual funds inside her RRSP.

Maddy had to pay deferred sales charges (DSCs) on the dividend fund. While DSCs disappear after seven years and she held the fund for nine years, each distribution started the clock running again.

Since she couldn’t sell her RRSP funds without incurring a big tax bill, she decided to transfer the portfolio to another adviser.

As a result, she could repay the line of credit only by contributing more money. The DSCs reduced her initial capital and the modest growth didn’t offset them. Meanwhile, she spent thousands on interest over the years.

Borrowing to invest rarely makes sense, except for sophisticated investors who can hold securities for years without being tempted to sell. Maddy was inexperienced and agreed to a leverage strategy when pushed to do so by her adviser.

Here’s a story from Marsha, who paid Appliance Repair Guys to fix her dryer, which was making a squeaky noise. The technician “fixed” it and charged $320. Two days later, the machine was making a different noise.

The technician came back, did something else and charged $80 for the service call (after saying there would be no charge because she’d filled out a warranty form).

The machine sounded even worse afterward. But all she got was a runaround.

“At the end of multiple calls, the company refused to do anything,” Marsha says. “I’m out $400 and I can’t get my money back.”

She initially paid with a debit card after being told no credit cards were allowed. She was allowed to use a credit card for the second visit, since she was out of town.

However, CIBC Visa would not give her a refund for the $80 service call, telling her she had to pursue her dispute directly with the company.

“This company has ZERO accountability. How can they get away with this, other than saying that we seem to be stupid consumers?”

Here’s what I’d say. When you can’t wash or dry your laundry, keep your food cold or cook it at high heat, you’re anxious to get your appliances working again.

You find an attractive website for a repair firm that promises same-day service and has a few testimonials from anonymous customers. You’re too rushed to do any research and assume you’ll be treated fairly if your appliance can’t be fixed.

Next time, ask your friends for referrals. Check with the manufacturer to find authorized repair firms. Go to the BBB, Homestars and Yelp to find consumer complaints.

When you let technicians into your home, you’re at their mercy. They can take your machines apart and quote outrageous prices to put them back together again.